Wednesday, August 31, 2011

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Southeast Missouri State University student Jennifer Rickard made the discovery of a lifetime during a summer program in Spain: the remains of a shipwreck deep in the Mediterranean waters.

Rickard was studying at the Cavalleria Ecomuseum when she and six other divers made the discovery.

The ship dates to the sixteenth or seventeenth century and was badly charred by fire.

Rickard says she was not expecting to find a shipwreck that day.

'They had told us to due magnitronomy and also some other indications that there possibly was one in that area, we did end up discovering it through a mass amount of dead seaweed that had been underneath us," Rickard said.

Jennifer was granted a scholarship from the Harryette Campbell Foundation to help fund the program.

Rickard's says she hopes to continue studying maritime archaeology for her masters and PhD.